News - Manatee.WaterAtlas.orghttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/Recent news items for Manatee County Water Atlas60Legislature passes bill to boost aquifers with treated sewage: Environmental groups cringehttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17250<p>A bill approved by the Legislature allows utilities to pump treated sewage into Florida’s aquifer system.
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Most state residents get their drinking water from the aquifers.
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The measure is aimed at boosting the state’s over-tapped aquifers.
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But Frank Jackalone of the Sierra Club worries it threatens a primary drinking water source with water usually reserved for things like irrigating lawns.
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“It can contain high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, hazardous chemicals, things that are above the acceptable standards for drinking water quality.”
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The bill’s sponsor says it is safe and that he would be glad to drink the aquifer water after the treated sewage is pumped in.
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The Legislature adjourned Sunday. The measure is awaiting the governor’s signature.
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WaterAtlas.orgFri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT&ldquo;Data is king&rdquo;: Analysis confirms projections of sea level rise modelshttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17251No more computer models or projections. Finally – concrete data.
A scientific paper published in February may pave the way for a new conversation about rising sea levels using data instead of projections.
Gary Mitchum, co-author of the paper and Associate Dean at the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida, says the research is more than just another explanation of the effects of global climate change.
“In science, data is king,” Mitchum said. “I’ve been telling people I think it’s a game-changer in that the discussion can now switch from is this just an error in the models, the computer models, or is it really in the data?’’
The paper immediately received international attention and went viral within the scientific community.
The team of researchers began compiling data in 1993. They released the statistics from satellite altimetry, the measurement of height or altitude from a satellite.
“We’re hoping that what this is going to do is allow people to stop worrying about the fact that it’s only the models seeing it, that we actually see it in the data now too and we can have a conversation about what we need to be doing,” Mitchum said.
Using data from 25 years of observation, researchers concluded that previous projections by computer models were accurate with 99 percent confidence. The global average sea level rose about 3 millimeters per year.
Now, the scientific community has recorded data that confirms these research methods.
WaterAtlas.orgFri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTSummertime fertilizer ban persists despite pressure from turf groupshttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17249<p><strong>The Florida Department of Environmental Protection estimates the costs to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from waterways at $3,300 per pound per year and $11,000 per pound per year, respectively.</strong></p>
<p>BRADENTON &ndash; A literal turf war over a 2011 fertilizer ordinance fizzled out after Manatee County commissioners narrowly decided not to change the rule.
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The way the ordinance is now, and how it will remain, bans nitrogen fertilizer from June 1 through Sept. 30, prohibits phosphorus year-round unless the soil has been tested and deemed deficient and requires that all granular fertilizers need to have more than 50 percent slow-release nitrogen.
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In a work session Tuesday, leaders heard from either side of the struggle: Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department outlined that the ordinance was put in place to limit nitrogen runoff into stormwater, while turf and fertilizer proponents wanted to ease the restrictions to allow licensed lawn care professionals to practice during the summer.
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The county adopted the ordinance based on a Tampa Bay Estuary Program model from 2008. Excess nutrients like nitrogen or phosphorus can contribute to the growth of certain kinds of algae, which in turn leads to damaged seagrass beds and depleted oxygen levels that contribute to fish kills.
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WaterAtlas.orgThu, 15 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTJudge rejects environmentalist complaints about Aqua by the Bayhttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17242<p>MANATEE COUNTY — A state administrative law judge this week rejected environmentalists’ arguments that developers of the controversial Aqua by the Bay project on Sarasota Bay be denied a special wetlands permit.
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The recommendation by Judge D. R. Alexander of the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings provides legal clearance for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to issue that permit, which the agency previously declared its intention to do.
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Alexander determined that “the burden of ultimate persuasion” fell on several petitioners challenging the permit application to “prove their case ... by a preponderance of the competent and substantial evidence.”
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After presiding over a December hearing in Sarasota in which several witnesses testified, and reviewing that transcript and other records, Alexander determined that the challengers failed to make their case.
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The petitioners — Suncoast Waterkeeper, the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage and former Manatee County commissioner Joe McClash — can challenge Alexander’s decision in the state District Court of Appeal in either Lakeland or Tallahassee.</p>WaterAtlas.orgMon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTConservationists seek to protect Braden River wetlands from developmenthttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17243<p>MANATEE COUNTY — With nearly $700,000 in pledges as of Friday, a nonprofit that specializes in the acquisition of conservation land is hopeful it can raise at least $1 million of the $3 million needed to establish the much-debated Braden River Preserve.
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On Tuesday, the Manatee County Commission remained undecided about establishing a special tax district in the Braden Woods and River Club neighborhoods to finance the purchase of more than 32 acres for which developer Pat Neal and his business partner sons have approval to build a gated subdivision.
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The commission postponed that decision to March 20.
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Since that commission meeting, the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast has received nearly $700,000 in pledges from area residents wanting to assist efforts in acquiring the property on behalf of the county.
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The Floyd C. Johnson and Flo Singer Johnson Foundation is “leading the charge” with a $500,000 challenge grant to raise matching donations, said Suzanne Gregory, the foundation’s director of programs and marketing.</p>
WaterAtlas.orgMon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTMore manatees died from cold stress this winterhttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17244<p>Florida is on pace for another cold, harsh record year for manatee deaths, according to an environmental watchdog group.
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Already, 166 manatees have died statewide, state statistics through March 2 show.
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Cold spells in January and February claimed 51 manatees statewide this year, including 10 of the 22 deaths in Brevard County.
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More than 150 manatees died in just the first seven weeks of 2018, putting Florida on pace to set an annual record for manatee deaths, according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit government watchdog group.
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“Florida’s manatees are one big freeze away from an ecological disaster and need more, not less, protection,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.</p>
WaterAtlas.orgMon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTManatee County to clean Greer Islandhttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17234<p><strong>This gesture marks the first step in what the county sees as a thawing of a tense relationship with Longboat Key, County spokesman says.</strong>
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Manatee County has started removing litter from Greer Island, a step toward establishing a new relationship between the county and Longboat Key.
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Town Commissioners, in a February meeting with County Commissioners, said Manatee County's level of service to the town's north-end residents didn't match the taxes paid, including not cleaning nor maintaining its property at Greer Island.
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“It’s a source of a significant part of our beach budget to deal with the problems on Greer Island,” said District 5 commissioner Ed Zunz at the meeting with the county. “We’ve asked time and again for assistance with the costs of Manatee County to no response.”
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The county gives the Key no more services than Sarasota County does yet asks more money from its residents, according to town staff. Sarasota County invested $10 million into the Key with Bayfront Park. </p>
WaterAtlas.orgFri, 09 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTHigh-res mapping of U.S. flood risk triples the population in harm&#39;s wayhttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17236<p>Some 41 million Americans are at risk of seeing their homes flooded in so-called 100-year events, an exposure level perhaps three times higher than the official estimates of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government bodies.
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This is the marquee finding, but hardly the only surprise, in a groundbreaking study by researchers in Britain and the United States, including two scientists for The Nature Conservancy who work out of the group’s Minneapolis office.
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The results are derived from modeling based on extraordinary advances in high-resolution mapping and supercomputing, in techniques developed at England’s University of Bristol and a nearby research institute called Fathom.
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The new modeling has been applied globally for a number of Fathom's public and private clients, and in this instance sought to make improvements over “past attempts to estimate rainfall-driven flood risk across the U.S. [that] either have incomplete coverage, coarse resolution or use overly simplified models of the flooding process.”</p>
WaterAtlas.orgFri, 09 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTCourt rulings may result in groundwater discharges requiring NPDES permitshttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17238<p>If the first two months of 2018 are any indication, events to play out over the rest of the year will have a major impact on what constitutes a “discharge” subject to regulation under Section 402 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Three cases pending in different federal courts of appeals will address whether releases of pollutants to groundwater hydrologically connected to waters of the United States are subject to the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting requirements of the CWA. In a fourth case, the Ninth Circuit recently weighed in on this issue by articulating a novel, broad rule for determining when a discharge occurs. Spurred on by these developments, and its own admittedly varied positions on this issue over the years, EPA is now seeking comment by May 21 on how to approach this issue.
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How the courts and EPA resolve this question will dictate what releases potentially create liability under the CWA. For example, spilling or leaking materials conveyed by groundwater or subsurface flow to surface water may suddenly require NPDES permits. And under the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision, even pollutants washed into navigable waters by sheet flow may be regulated by the CWA. Unlike discrete point source activities traditionally required to obtain NPDES permits, these newly defined “discharges” would be difficult to anticipate—and seek permit coverage for—because these pathways to regulated waters may only be discernible after the fact. The four pending lawsuits represent attempts by citizen plaintiffs in each case to expand NPDES permit liability to unforeseen circumstances.
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Nearly every industry has a stake in how EPA and the courts resolve this issue. If EPA and more federal judges follow the Ninth Circuit’s lead by broadly defining discharges regulated by the CWA, many companies and operations will see increased exposure to enforcement actions by citizen groups, EPA, and states authorized to implement the NPDES program. Submitting comments to EPA by May 21 and filing amicus briefs in pending litigation offer timely opportunities to inform how the Agency and judiciary will define the CWA’s reach.</p>
WaterAtlas.orgFri, 09 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMTUF Study: To prevent harmful algal blooms, limit nitrogen and phosphorushttp://www.manatee.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/newsviewall.asp?newsid=17231<p>GAINESVILLE &ndash; Algal blooms can kill fish and harm a lake’s ecosystem, but by reducing two nutrients together such as nitrogen and phosphorus – not just one or the other -- water managers might limit the blooms in lakes and rivers, a new University of Florida study shows.
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To come to this conclusion, UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers used an innovative method used in artificial intelligence. The method also will apply to bloom-control research in freshwater ecosystems around the world, UF/IFAS researchers say.
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For years, scientists have argued about whether managing both nitrogen and phosphorus – versus managing strictly phosphorus or just nitrogen – would control harmful algal blooms.
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For 25 years, Ed Phlips, a UF/IFAS professor in fisheries and aquatic sciences, has worked with scientists at the St. Johns River Water Management District to try to limit nutrients from entering Lake George and imperiling its ecosystem. Blooms in Lake George come from a group of algae that contain many species capable of producing toxins or otherwise disrupting ecosystems, such as creating low oxygen conditions, Phlips said.
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“One of the central goals of the research has been identifying the factors that cause frequent harmful algal blooms in the lake, creating a range of challenges for the health and sustainability of key aquatic resources, including fish communities and water for human uses,” Phlips said.
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Recently, Rafael Muñoz-Carpena, a UF/IFAS professor of agricultural and biological engineering, led a research team, with his doctoral student Natalie Nelson that reviewed 17 years of data collected by Phlips’ lab from the waters of Lake George, the second largest lake in Florida, behind Lake Okeechobee. Lake George lies in parts of Putnam, Lake, Marion and Volusia counties in central Florida.
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Scientists used a new approach called Random Forests Analysis, which tests the sensitivity of bloom-forming species to several environmental conditions in the lake, Muñoz-Carpena said. Those include nutrient levels, water temperatures, light levels and densities of aquatic life that feed from the lake’s bottom.
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Researchers found that the major bloom-forming algae in Lake George respond differently to levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, said Phlips.
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WaterAtlas.orgWed, 07 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMT